4 - Christ's Transformation of Zacchaeus in the York Cycle's Entry into Jerusalem

Summary

Christ's miracles as dramatized in the York cycle of Corpus Christi plays convey a representative selection of the Savior's works, attesting to his efficacy. His miracles of physical regeneration can be strikingly theatrical as borne out through contemporary production: the lame man hurls his crutches aside; and Lazarus staggers from his tomb resuscitated, still encumbered by his funeral garments. In addition to these works conducive to stage action, spiritual healings unaccompanied by physical metamorphosis are also enacted, though such transformations are less disposed toward external manifestation, making it necessary for spectators to imagine what the wondrous act, once effected, would entail; for example, the rehabilitated life of the Woman Taken in Adultery once the transgressor has reversed her sinning ways. One such miracle of spiritual renewal is the conversion of Zacchaeus, the publican sinner called down by Christ from a sycamore tree, into which the short-statured man had climbed to witness Jesus' entry into Jerusalem (cf. Luke 19, 1–10). In Play No. 25, this episode occurs after two miracles of physical healing have already taken place: the bestowing of sight upon the man born blind and the granting of bodily wholeness to the lame man. While Zacchaeus's transmutation from ostracized tax collector to believer in Christ is unremarkable vis-à-vis the stage action one would normally expect of a miraculous feat, it is his climbing of the sycamore tree, undertaken as the crowd sees him doing so, that emphasizes how instrumental the event of seeing (and being seen) is to this play in particular.